Russia pays Ukraine $98 million a year for leasing the naval base in Crimea. Source: Sergey Savostianov / RG

RBTH replies to the most frequently asked
questions about the status of Crimea, its history and population.

What is Crimea and to what
country does it belong?

Crimea is a peninsula in the
south of Ukraine. Its territory consists of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea
(which occupies most of the peninsula), the city of Sevastopol (which has a
special status and is considered a separate administrative entity within
Ukraine), and a small part of Kherson Region.

The capital of the Autonomous
Republic of Crimea is Simferopol.

What is the population of
Crimea?

At the time of the latest Ukrainian census, taken in 2001, the
population of Crimea was 2,413,228.

Related:

According to the Ukrainian State Statistics
Service, as of Nov. 1, 2013, the population of the Autonomous Republic of
Crimea stood at 1,967,119 people.

Over 50 percent of them are Russians, some 24
percent are Ukrainians, and about 12 percent are Crimean Tatars.

How did Crimea become part of
Ukraine?

In 1921, after the 1917-1920 Russian Revolution and Civil War,
the Autonomous Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic was set up and later became
part of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic. During World War II,
Crimea was under German and Romanian occupation for four years before it was
liberated by Soviet troops.

In 1954, the Crimean Region, under a decree of the
presidium of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union, was transferred from the
Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist
Republic.

As a result, when the Soviet Union fell apart and each Soviet
Republic became an independent state, Crimea remained part of Ukraine.

What languages do people in
Crimea speak?

Under the laws of the Autonomous Republic
of Crimea, there is no official language of the republic.

In reality, Russian
and Ukrainian are both used as official languages.

According to a poll
conducted by the Kiev-based International Institute of Sociology in 2004,
Russian (sometimes alongside other languages) is used as a means of
communication by about 97 percent of the Crimean population.

What Russian troops are
permanently deployed in Crimea?

Under the Treaty on
Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership signed by Moscow and Kiev in 1997,
Russia was granted the right to retain the Sevastopol naval base and to keep
its Black Sea Fleet in Crimea until 2017.

Under the terms of the agreement
between Russia and Ukraine on the status and terms of the Russian Black Sea
Fleet’s presence on the territory of Ukraine, at any one time there can be 388
Russian vessels (including 14 diesel submarines) in Ukrainian territorial
waters and on land and 161 aircraft on leased airfields at Gvardeiskoye
(located north of the regional capital Simferopol) and Sevastopol.

These
figures are comparable with the size of Turkey’s naval force, though in fact
the number of Russian vessels and aircraft in Crimea does not approach this
figure.

The original agreement was signed for a period of 20 years. The
agreement was written in a way that allows it to be automatically extended for
subsequent five-year periods unless one of the sides notified the other of a
decision to terminate the agreement, in writing and a year in advance.

A second
agreement, signed in Kharkiv in 2010, extended the duration of the Russian
Black Sea Fleet’s presence in Sevastopol until 2042.

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